In the book Brave New World the World State sends dissidents to any number of islands for them to live the rest of their lives in peace and stop them from causing issues for the rest of society.
Assuming a single authoritarian government ruled the world in 2025 but didn’t want to execute dissidents, troublemakers and the like, what single location would be the best place to send and keep them indefinitely?
It has to be a place unpleasant enough that no one would want to go there, large enough to potentially hold and sustain millions of people and not economically valuable enough to be a significant loss to the world government.
Siberia has always been a popular choice - huge and distinctly unpleasant. I imagine.
Within the United States, the Dakotas would serve just fine for that use.
Stranger
Off world colonies where they could fight it out with replicants.
Brave New World was written in the very early 1930s. Do we know what Aldous Huxley thought about the German Trains to Oblivion?
New Zealand. It’s not unpleasant, but it’s small, isolated, and far, far away.
I think an authoritarian regime would want to punish dissidents.
Almost all of Australia is comprised of Nowhere.
Iceland.
You want to send your dissidents some place with an unpleasant climate.
In silence, to assist deniability.
I was thinking, “Isn’t that the traditional use of Australia?”
Given this is a world-wide State, and the world population is much higher now than in the mid-20th century when someone last tried this kind of thing, they’ll need a lot more space. The inhospitable middle of Australia seems to fit the criteria.
I think far too many people are treating this like a “sending the pet out to the country” situation just to feel better and/or be in denial.
IIRC the Nazis for a time considered deporting Jews to Madagascar. Of course, it never happened, but it was at the time very undeveloped and it would have sort of been like sending people to live in abandoned lots – they wouldn’t have lived very long.
Or we’re not fighting the premise of the OP.
Big enough to sustain millions of people (and they won’t like it), but not be the target of a World Wide State, and this mythical place can’t be seen as a future Enemy Of The State by either The State or The Exiles?
Not without an unbreakable force field.
I think you just described Gaza.
I picked New Zealand because it has several traits that make it an attractive dumping ground. It’s a nice place compared to Siberia, sure, but cut it off from the rest of the world and see how things go.
Why wouldn’t such a world government regime just build several big gulags? There’s no need for exile, just imprison them.
Because it is a short hop to Australia.